The real frustrating thing is that current American conservatives forget, won't admit, refuse to acknowledge, overlook the fact, or are simply ignorant that ALL of their cherished values were once considered liberal or outright revolutionary.

Perhaps you shouldn't describe yourself in oversimplified terms such as "conservative" or "liberal" and form a coherent three dimensional worldview that is elastic enough to adjust to a constantly evolving planet.

Nah, that goes against the tenets of being a curmudgeonly stick-in-the-mud.

In seriousness, though, I have to admit that kame's got a point. I've said it before: I tend to dislike labeling myself. Perhaps that's just best as left at that._________________I am only a somewhat arbitrary sequence of raised and lowered voltages to which your mind insists upon assigning meaning

Few things are as frustrating as dealing with someone who's attitude is "I don't know, I don't care, I don't want to listen to you."

It's like dealing with a child that sticks their fingers in their ears, closes their eyes and starts going "NYAH NYAH NYAH!"

Indeed! Although I also sometimes wonder/worry if I'm really *that* different from them.

Long story short: Free Will, of *some* sort, is an axiom I build a lot of my worldview on. That I have, in some strange capacity, at least the ability to alter how I think about things over the long term, even if I can't immediately change my reactions. Whether this comes from some divine soul, or some really, reaaaallly weird feedback loop, I believe I have *some* degree of autonomy...

And if it was ever somehow 'proven' that free will was a myth, I'd... probably react like young earth creationists do about evolution. And I admit this is a thought that distresses me.

/I think about things waaaaaaayyy too much._________________"No, but evil is still being --Is having reason-- Being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... Like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason."
-Ed, from Digger

Long story short: Free Will, of *some* sort, is an axiom I build a lot of my worldview on. That I have, in some strange capacity, at least the ability to alter how I think about things over the long term, even if I can't immediately change my reactions. Whether this comes from some divine soul, or some really, reaaaallly weird feedback loop, I believe I have *some* degree of autonomy...

And if it was ever somehow 'proven' that free will was a myth, I'd... probably react like young earth creationists do about evolution. And I admit this is a thought that distresses me.

Said King: "Some of the speculation that has come out is that yes, it was a foreign national and, speculating here, that it was potentially a person on a student visa. If that's the case, then we need to take a look at the big picture."
He added: "We need to be ever vigilant. We need to go far deeper into our border crossings... We need to take a look at the visa-waiver program and wonder what we're doing. If we can't background-check people that are coming from Saudi Arabia, how do we think we are going to background check the 11 to 20 million people that are here from who knows where?"

isn't there some saying about never missing an opportunity to make the most of a crisis? 's all king is doing. even if he has to start from completely groundless speculation and then make the crisis up out of the whole cloth.

i know it's wrong to hope this was done by some right-wing extremist, but i really hope this was done by a right-wing extremist._________________aka: neverscared!
a flux of vibrant matter

Perhaps you shouldn't describe yourself in oversimplified terms such as "conservative" or "liberal" and form a coherent three dimensional worldview that is elastic enough to adjust to a constantly evolving planet.

Nah, that goes against the tenets of being a curmudgeonly stick-in-the-mud.

In seriousness, though, I have to admit that kame's got a point. I've said it before: I tend to dislike labeling myself. Perhaps that's just best as left at that.

while I don't disagree I want to point out that some people find comfort in a firm definition of themselves and others, helps them to feel that they are part of an in-group, and frees our minds from having to spend the energy analyzing every aspect of everyone we meet before making a judgement call. while these might not be the ideal way of doing things, they can be helpful. also labels don't define people, people define labels. "conservative", "gay", "christian", "woman", etc. have different definitions for everyone, they aren't meant to be limiting but to aid in social interaction._________________FormerlyGreen_Finn

Said King: "Some of the speculation that has come out is that yes, it was a foreign national and, speculating here, that it was potentially a person on a student visa. If that's the case, then we need to take a look at the big picture."
He added: "We need to be ever vigilant. We need to go far deeper into our border crossings... We need to take a look at the visa-waiver program and wonder what we're doing. If we can't background-check people that are coming from Saudi Arabia, how do we think we are going to background check the 11 to 20 million people that are here from who knows where?"